A Young Woman's Heart

Even those traveling with children mostly disembarked within Chinese territory.

Here you can see many Caucasians with high nose bridges and deep cheekbones.

They are not necessarily all foreigners; many are also members of ethnic minorities.

It was already quite late when it was time to board the train, and as soon as she entered the carriage, Mo Xueyao couldn't help but start yawning repeatedly.

For such a long-distance train journey, it was impossible to buy seated tickets. Whether it was Mo Xueyao's family, Hua Yinyin, or Mr. Xue alone, they all bought sleeper tickets.

At first, Mo Xueyao was quite looking forward to the sleeper berth, but when she actually saw it, she was very disappointed.

It's just a regular train carriage with all the seats removed, and then rows of simple three-tiered beds placed inside.

Yes, it's three stories, not two, which means it makes the most of the space.

It's practically like a large military training dormitory.

Apart from that, it was no different from a soft seat, and there were no partitions between the beds, making Mo Xueyao wonder if she could actually fall asleep.

“We have a hard sleeper, the first…” The father looked for each berth with the train tickets in his hand, but was patted on the shoulder by Hua Yinyin’s father, Hua Jiankai, who was behind him.

"Brother, we bought a soft sleeper berth. Why don't we let the girls sleep there?"

"How could I possibly accept that..."

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. It's been a long time since I've ridden in a hard sleeper car. I'll take a ride too, and we can chat while we're at it, right?"

"Ahem." The father coughed lightly. If it were him, he would have immediately refused the other party's kindness, but considering that the girls might not be comfortable in this environment, he hesitated.

"Alright, alright, Xiaoyao and the class monitor, come with me~" Hua Yinyin said, leading the way, "We're going to the sleeper section."

"Xiaoxue, come along too," Mo Xueyao invited.

On the contrary, the children are not very polite to each other, mainly because they are both classmates and familiar friends.

Mo Wenli chuckled dryly: "Ha, look at these kids..."

"It's alright, let the kids play by themselves, and the women can play somewhere else too. Let's go chat!" Hua Jiankai patted Mo Wenli on the shoulder happily. "Where were we?"

"Wang Jingwei".

"Oh, we were talking about Wang Jingwei, right? People always say he was trying to save the country through a roundabout way, and I just think that kind of person..."

"We're here." Hua Yinyin led everyone forward with the tickets for a while. "This is it. This room is all ours."

"Is this a soft sleeper?" Mo Xueyao's eyes lit up, and she felt her anticipation for the sleeper berth return.

"To be precise, it should be a deluxe soft sleeper." Hua Yinyin stuffed the ticket into her pocket, so that she wouldn't be unable to find it when the conductor came to check tickets later.

"Where did you buy Xiaoxue's ticket?" Mo Xueyao walked into the room, glanced around with satisfaction, and then tilted her head to ask Mr. Xue.

“I have a soft sleeper, in the carriage that came up ahead,” Mr. Xue smiled. “I just came to take a look around, and I’ll be going back in a bit.”

"Hmm, it seems I really can't sleep."

The deluxe sleeper berth has three beds: the left one is double-decker and the right one is single-decker. Only the right one can be folded up to become a soft sofa.

Although it was a deluxe sleeper, the aisle in the middle was still a bit crowded and not very spacious.

But compared to the shabby hard sleeper berths outside, this place is simply paradise.

In addition, there is a separate washroom, and a large table by the window that can hold a lot of things.

In any case, being able to spend eight days on a train, where space is incredibly valuable, like staying in a hotel would be an absolutely wonderful thing.

After watching for a while, Mr. Xue said goodbye and returned to his carriage.

Only Mo Xueyao, Li Wanyan, and Hua Yinyin remained in the private room.

"I'll sleep on top," Li Wanyan said first.

"I don't care." Mo Xueyao shrugged. The excitement of entering the deluxe sleeper room hadn't subsided yet, and she was happy to look at the scenery from the lower bunk—although it was pitch black outside and there didn't seem to be much to see. "Then I'll choose this bed that can be folded into a sofa."

"Looks like I have no choice." Hua Yinyin yawned widely. She was so sleepy that she didn't even feel like teasing Mo Xueyao anymore. As soon as she saw the bed, she wanted to lie down and sleep immediately. But she still staggered and took out her toiletries from her backpack and washed up in the small washroom.

"Knock knock." Not long after, there was a knock on the door.

It was Mo Wenli and Hua Jiankai who arrived with a huge pile of luggage.

"It's not convenient to leave these things outside, so let's keep them in your room. It's both convenient and safe."

"Hello, please check your ticket..."

The car had just started moving, but it was already quite noisy inside the room.

Because of this deluxe sleeper carriage, both Mo Xueyao's parents and Hua Yinyin's parents came here to wash up. Even Mo Xueyao, who didn't want to wash up right away, was supervised by her mother to wash up.

By the time things finally quieted down, almost half an hour had passed.

"Phew... finally no one's here." Mo Xueyao breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on her bed.

"Little Yaoyao, turn off the light..." Hua Yinyin said groggily, wrapped in the blanket, seemingly in a half-dream state.

"Yaoyao, you should go to sleep early too." Li Wanyan also shrank back into the covers.

"Hmm, I'll sleep later." Anyway, the journey is still long, so she's not in a hurry to sleep. If she wants to sleep, she'll probably have plenty of time in the next few days.

The train is almost out of the city, and the light outside is gradually dimming. Perhaps in a little while, we won't be able to see the scenery outside anymore.

Mo Xueyao turned off the lights, tossed the pantyhose she had taken off while washing her feet aside, and sat cross-legged on the sofa, which hadn't yet been set up as a bed.

The room was air-conditioned, so it wasn't cold at all. After all, it was a deluxe soft sleeper, one of only a few tickets available. It cost several times more than a hard sleeper, but of course, it offered a much better experience.

Moreover, it seems that this is the only three-person compartment; the other deluxe sleeper compartments on this train are all double lower berth compartments.

It was probably prepared specifically for a family of three.

Earlier, I overheard the train attendant chatting with someone else, saying that the hard sleeper carriage that was originally added also had individual compartments, divided into four-person rooms, but because that carriage was broken and needed repair, they could only temporarily tow a somewhat old carriage.

The hard sleeper carriages in the old trains don't have private compartments; their advantage is probably that more people can sleep there.

As for compensation, there certainly won't be any.

Mo Xueyao took out some of the snacks she had bought at the supermarket the day before she left and placed them on the table. In this dark room, she looked at the equally dark world outside.

Once you get used to this light, you'll find that the outside world isn't entirely dark.

Even without streetlights, you can see the brilliant starlight and the bright moonlight overhead.

Thankfully, it was a nice day, otherwise we might not have been able to see anything at all.

"Oh right, the one my godfather gave me...!" Mo Xueyao suddenly remembered the cassette player her godfather had given her before they parted. She had wanted to listen to it before getting on the bus, but she had been too busy and forgot about it.

This is a New Year's gift for her, but it's not brand new, mainly because it's not easy to buy a brand new one if you don't go abroad.

He bought it from someone else.

The tape recorder is a Sony brand, which even Mo Xueyao has heard of. If it's brand new, it would cost at least a thousand yuan.

Although it was secondhand, it was clearly well-protected; it was covered in a cloth bag, and inside was a pair of headphones that hadn't been used much.

The cassette player was entirely black, with a small display screen on the front and a long pointer adjustment bar at the top for listening to the radio.

Her godfather was very thoughtful; he was obviously worried that she would be lonely on her journey, so he gave her a cassette player and a small box with many cassette tapes.

Twenty No. 5 batteries were used.

This package is so big, it's quite heavy to carry.

Mo Xueyao randomly picked a cassette tape and inserted it, trying out each button before finally finding the play button.

"Click, click." The tape started spinning.

She put on her headphones and leaned leisurely against the window, where the night was illuminated by the glittering stars.

Russian-style music filled my ears, and the singer's charming trilled tongue sounds were quite addictive.

And so, just listening to music, eating snacks, and looking out the window at midnight, time flowed quietly by unnoticed.

The cassette tape has been listened to countless times, both front and back.

The train seemed to have entered the city again, and slowly slowed down and came to a stop.

"Dear passengers, the next stop is Shanhaiguan..."

Another purpose of the conductor's ticket check is to register the station where each passenger gets off, and to personally wake them up and remind them when they arrive at their destination, so that passengers don't miss their stop while sleeping in bed.

Mo Xueyao's room is for the final stop, so of course no flight attendants will bother her.

To Mo Xueyao, who was wearing headphones, the broadcast sounded somewhat ethereal and distant.

She herself didn't know when she fell asleep, only that she must have been woken up by the heat.

The room was heated, and the sunlight outside the window was warm, making my back sweat.

The cassette player had already stopped automatically after finishing playing, and a bag of open potato chips lay quietly beside it.

"Hmm..." She picked up a potato chip and put it in her mouth, mumbling a greeting, "Good morning..."

"It's still early, it's already noon." Li Wanyan, who was cracking sunflower seeds, glanced at her. "What time did you go to bed last night?"

"I don't know either." Mo Xueyao yawned widely. "Where's Hua Yinyin?"

"Taking a shower."

"Huh? Taking a shower at this hour?"

"Because she spilled soup all over herself while having lunch at the restaurant—in an attempt to touch my thigh."

"Uh, that's exactly the kind of thing she would do."

……

A>>>>>>>>>B

Chapter 46 Snowpiercer (Part 2)

This is the morning of my third day on the train.

At four o'clock, the train had already stopped at Manzhouli Station.

It took a full three hours before it slowly started to start.